The highwaymen — who tried to hold a gun to the Nation’s head — failed, at least for now. We’ll know in a couple of months whether those who see America primarily through their own tunnel vision, and who listen only to their most rabid followers, have learned anything since they dreamed up this shutdown “strategy” those months ago.

But for the benefit of those who care more about the Nation as a whole, I extract a short quote from Lincoln’s address, carved into the wall before you: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in…”

So instead, we can consider the following excerpts from Lincoln’s speech to the Copper Union, February 27, 1860:

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. This, plainly stated, is your language…

In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool*. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, “Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!”

[* The 1852 edition of Noah Webster’s dictionary has it: “3. Not hasty; deliberate; as, a cool falsehood or deception. Hence, 4. Impudent in a high degree, as when speaking of some trick, pretension, &c., we say ‘that is cool.’ “]

Lincoln Memorial, May 2008

I stumbled across this picture while working on another project.

Not traditional composition and framing, which is why I like it.

Lincoln

It was shot with a Leica M8 and a Voigtlander 90mm lens. The image is very low key, with no startling whites or deep blacks. Typical for an M8 image, the DNG (RAW) file required very little post processing.